I've been influenced by my friend Sondan at Everything Old Is New Again and her post Love Songs of the 70's.

Ever since my earlier, impressionable music listening days, the songs that have always stayed with me are those sappy love songs. "Ya, that's right. I'll be a man and admit it! I dig those love songs." Wow, that wasn't hard at all.

As a young kid they seemed to so perfectly capture the essence of the current crush I had on someone like Chris, (Laughter In The Rain) the girl next door or Carla (Colour My World) who lived on the other side. Or Bev (Crazy On You), Becky (So Far Away) and Nancy (Best of My Love) from my summer camp days. There was Tina, Gloria and Sharon from grammar school and Karen (Don't Stop Believin') my high school sweetheart. It goes on and on, but the bottom line is I don't think there's a single love song from the 70's or early 80's, that doesn't remind me of someone I was with or wanted to be with.

Now I'm just talking about the "being together" songs. There's also the "breaking up songs", which is a post for another day. No, right now, it's about the tunes that put that stupid grin on your face that your friends could never just let slide. Or that funny feeling in the pit of your stomach, when the cute new girl in school was assigned a seat next to you. I guess that's where the loss of appetite comes in.

I know there's way too many to list them all, but some that I remember playing were "My Love", "Your Song", "I Just Want to be Your Everything", "Dance With Me", "Falling", "Magnet and Steel" and "Kiss You All Over".

Now some of the best, in my opinion, weren't from the mainstream genre, but from the R&B/Soul charts. Groups like:

The Chi-lites w/ Oh Girl, Have you Seen Her, Just Two Teenage Kids

The Stylistics w/ Betcha By Golly Wow, You Are Everything, Stone In Love With You

Love Unlimited w/ Walking in the Rain With the One I Love

The Delfonics w/ La La Means I Love You, Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time

The Spinners w/ Could It Be I'm Falling In Love, One of a Kind Love Affair

Barry White w/ My First, My Last, My Everything, Can't Get Enough of Your Love Babe, It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me

Teddy Pendergrass w/ Close The Door, Turn Off the Lights, Come Go With Me

Shalamar w/ This Is For the Lover In You, Somewhere There's A Love

But my most favorite of all was Earth, Wind and Fire w/ Reasons.

"In a second hun." Uh-oh. The wife, (aka The Brunette), wants to know what my post is about.

Uh-oh. She put on our song. Time to be Rico Suave.

Got-to-go.

But first what love songs were your favs? Who do they remind you of?

P.S. This is the brunette's and my song: "Toda Sexta-Feira" by Belo Veloso